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FAA Shifting Jobs Out of Kansas City
The Federal Aviation Administration is moving jobs out of its downtown facility, and union leaders fear the regional operation that has employed about 400 people will close.
Thirty-four local FAA employees were notified this week they were being transferred to Fort Worth, Texas, as part of a national air traffic organization consolidation plan, said Scott Lueckert, local union representative for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.
The union has organized a letter-writing campaign to the local congressional delegation asking for help. The letter states that almost 110 jobs are being ?dissolved? out of Kansas City. The FAA moved into its current facility at 901 Locust St. in January 1999.
Besides the 34 employees just notified, 41 accounting employees have been transferred to Oklahoma City, 21 air traffic positions have been shifted to Fort Worth, and 10 to 15 contract employees are expected to lose their jobs, according to the union letter.
"We've known about this for quite some time," Lueckert said. "But management has been cagey about the numbers."
The Kansas City FAA office referred inquiries to Tony Molinaro, an FAA spokesman in Chicago. Molinaro had no specific numbers for the staff reductions in Kansas City, but he said his agency had no plans to close the regional office in Kansas City or anyplace else.
"What the FAA is doing is responding to a congressional request for performance-based air traffic operations," Molinaro said. "It affects air traffic management in regional offices and technical operations management in regional offices."
